If the beta testers have patches, then they'll eventually make their way to you. DE doesn't want to release patches that could potentially break the game for half their players, so they have to test them out before releasing them. You can't expect them to just make whatever changes they do public before making sure nothing goes wrong first.

I don't know how much we're allowed to say, but we can say that Rob has been working on the game a lot lately.

DE have only got a small team, they cant work on the game, work on the editor tools, work on the sequels, work on advertising, work on buisness matters AND keep the message board up to date all the time, i know what u mean tho they could be a little more incontact with the public. Easiest way to do so would be simply make one of the beta testers a spokesman. *shrug*_________________Favourite Pilot: Reece
Favourite HAR: Pyros
Favourite Arena: Desert

MADia, the Echelon team, managed to do all that with an even smaller team, plus twice as fast, AND while working on a brand new game. It did take them a while to translate Echelon: Wind Warriors into english, but that has to do with their history with Bethesda that ripped them off bigtime. Too bad the russian developers dont have the money to support a lot of servers, but the mod tools are excellent, and were very well documented, without the help of any fans.
I'm in Beta for their new game. Didnt get my testing CD yet, but it looks supreme._________________

I agree with Mordax, I simply think one of the close to the team people, aka a beta tester should be given freedom to talk to us about ETA's etc._________________Favourite Pilot: Reece
Favourite HAR: Pyros
Favourite Arena: Desert